14 January 2014
Mobility Products For You: Recliner Chairs
One of the essentials in mobility products for you, recliner chairs originated in the 1800s when the French invented a reclining camp bed that could change into a chair, a bed and a chaise lounger.
By the later 1800’s, designs had been found of models made of wood which were also padded, offering much more in the way of comfort. These were functionally similar to the recliners that we know and love today, with the goal of both being able to sit upright and recline back with your legs and feet off the floor
What a lot of designers refer to as ‘motion furniture’, the recliner has been around for over 200 years, originally modeled after the chaise lounger and is the optimum in comfort for your household.
Eventually American cousins Knabush and Shoemaker gained a patent for a wooden recliner, which just resembled a beach recliner, with the difference that they had a patent for it. This led to the founding of LayZboy, which is to this day a very popular brand for recliner chairs worldwide and was popularized in the television series Friends.
Later they added the feature of it being fully motorised, and a competitor added the addition of a footrest, which became part of the standard recliner design. Although Layzboy wasn’t the first to develop reclining motion furniture but they are the first to have an effective brand for them and following their success, more and more companies produced recliners with a variety of features.
In modern times, recliners have features depending on the specialist needs of the customer but are still popular for casual use with many having more features than most time machines! You can add a miniature fridge amongst many other contraptions to your chair which is unsurprisingly an American innovation.
Riser recliner chairs are able to lift up and help the user exit the chair, this type of chair is extremely popular with people who have limited mobility. Riser recliner chairs also have the ability to move with the push of a button rather than having to pull a lever or cord. Recliner chairs & Riser recliners are, to this day a very large part of our living room furniture.